The Official SBtF Sam & Max Topic!

[Uzi-Bazooka]

I figure it's about time we had one of these. This way, rather than Wheelie and I making spoiler-rich text walls every time we want to talk about Sam & Max, we can just post here now!

THIS TOPIC WILL BE FULL OF SPOILERS. Don't come if you haven't played the games.
My review of The Penal Zone should be up soon.

Let's start with our lists of favorite episodes. Since Wheelie and I (oh and also MMM) can both all three of us edit posts, we'll change these whenever new episodes come out/we change our minds.

WHEELIE'S LIST:

Spoiler:

UZI'S LIST:

Spoiler:

MMM'S LIST:

Spoiler:

[The Wheelchair]

About time we get one of these!

[Kinda Long Hair]

I meant to make one of these when I finished everything (I'm on Tomb of Samunn-mak)

Spoiler:

[The Wheelchair]

I mean tot make one of these when I finished everything (Im on Tomb of Samunn-mak)

Spoiler:

Since Uzi just beat The Penal Zone, I'll get things regarding episodes after it in spoilers for now.

Spoiler:

[Uzi-Bazooka]

Holy snot! YOU'RE playing it, too, MMM?
Dang. I didn't realize our fanbase had grown so massive. Please make your own episode list in the top post.
And now for my review of The Penal Zone. Ahem.
Those of you who took the time to read through my episode list (you lunatic freaks) know that my favorite part of this episode was at the beginning. And that's the whole problem. The beginning little "teaser" they added to build suspense just ruins the suspense of everything else. You KNOW Max gets psychic powers, you even know what they are and how to use them. You KNOW that the Alien Brain is helpful, you know Skun-ka'pe is evil, you know Stinky is on their side, and you even know what's going to happen to Harry Moleman! The rest of the episode, in my opinion, was kind of a boring walk to a conclusion you already know.
Of course, I was excited to see that they changed the ending so that there could be an actual...y'know...ENDING. But that didn't automatically make the rest of the episode better.
Still, it wasn't all bad. The graphics were spectacular, and after a few trials and errors, I've come to really like the new interface. Teleportation is a much better alternative to having to just walk/drive everywhere (something many Telltale Games suffer from - the last pre-boss puzzle of ToMI requires walking back and forth and back and forth and back and forth doing the tiniest, most menial of tasks.) Future vision is also a very nice way to get hints without using a walkthrough. The puzzles were hard but not overly so, and there were some really funny jokes (I loved the banana peel bit. It's funny 'cause it's true: don't litter, kids.)
But another thing about The Devil's Playhouse (so far, at least) is that it feels very different from the first two. I mean, Sam & Max Season Two feels just like a continuation of the first-with similar graphics, rather similar stories and puzzles, and using the characters in about the same way you used them in Season One. But this...this is completely different. The story is brand new, as are most of the characters. The ones who stay have completely different roles to play (Superball, for example.) Bosco and Sybil are completely gone (which is depressing.) The C.O.P.S. are the only ones who really remain unchanged, despite the addition of a new member, and thus they are becoming my favorite characters. Are all these changes bad? I'm not sure how I feel about them. But I've got four more episodes to go, and I intend on sitting back and enjoying the ride.

[The Wheelchair]

Don't expect the season to get any closer to the previous seasons. As it's been said over at Telltale's forums, Season 3 is practically a reinvention of Sam & Max. For me, this was sometimes good and sometimes bad.

Also, I'm surprised that you liked Future Vision, Uzi. See, my main problem with it was that there was no way to tell what visions were necessary to solve a puzzle, and what ones were just hints. So a lot of the time, I'd have a non-future vision puzzle completely ruined for me because I tried to use future vision to solve it, thus finding unwanted hints.

[Uzi-Bazooka]

I guess I can see that. But for me, no hints are "unwanted hints." I'll take all the help I can get!
And I agree that some re-inventions are good, and some are bad. And number one on my list of bad things is the fact that they changed the "City Streets" music, which I loved. Number two is probably the fact that the Office got more or less completely blown up. Now where will I go to see random bits of memorabilia from past cases chucked lovingly into the closet? Where will random bits of flotsam lie around, just waiting to be clicked on in hilarious fashion?

[The Wheelchair]

I prefer to solve puzzles on my own. In fact, with the exception of Tomb of Sammun-Mak and Beyond the Alley of the Dolls, I actually thought the puzzles in this season were the easiest yet.

And yeah, the loss of the Office was pretty dang sad. This season doesn't re-use too many locations, which is something that I did like. It's a more Tales of Monkey Island-ish approach, with a few familiar locations, and a lot of new locations, each episode.

[Uzi-Bazooka]

Yeah, there are lots of elements from ToMI. And I think Season One still wins for easiest puzzles. But, again, we'll see.

[The Wheelchair]

Wait, I thought you said you found Season 2's puzzles easier.

[Kinda Long Hair]

So I just finished "The City that Dares Not Sleep"

Oh. Mah. God.

My rankings and reviews tommorow!

[Uzi-Bazooka]

Inaspoiler. INASPOILER. IN A FREAKING SPOILER, FOR CRIVENS' SAKES!!!!

[The Wheelchair]

So I just finished "The City that Dares Not Sleep"

Oh. Mah. God.

My rankings and reviews tommorow!

I pretty much expected that reaction.
A real WTPF, eh?

[Kinda Long Hair]

Hello. I would like to play A GAME a game

SAM & MAX
MMM's review

Spoiler:

[Uzi-Bazooka]

How did you NOT like breaking Leonard with Yo' Momma jokes? You scumbag.

And, yeah, I have to agree with putting Moai Better Blues at the bottom. A few funny bits, but mostly just annoying. And it took me a while to realize that, while Baby Amelia Earhart in Episode 202 is the older version of herself who got younger by drinking from the fountain of youth, Baby Amelia Earhart in Episode 302 is actually Amelia Earhart when she was a baby. I am really getting tired of typing "Baby Amelia Earhart."

Anyway, I'm putting your list at the top with the others. You've made it to the ranks of S&M fandom! Congraturations!

[The Wheelchair]

I'm surprised you liked They Stole Max's Brain! so much, Triple M.

Spoiler:

[Uzi-Bazooka]

Just finished the Tomb of Sammun-Mak. It currently reigns at Numba Four on my list, and here's why!

While it didn't have the straight-up hilarity of a few of the games above it (notably Abe Lincoln Must Die!), it still had several very funny bits, such as the cucumber-cut-lengthwise running gag. However, most importantly, this is what The Penal Zone should have been. It started with an exciting hint of things to come, but it DIDN'T GIVE THE WHOLE THING AWAY. And, let's be serious, Kringle's cruelty isn't exactly subtle.
The whole episode had a lot more creativity than other Telltale Episodes. When I first realized it was going to be controlling characters in a movie, I thought, "Oh, great, a ripoff of Dangeresque 3." But it wasn't-it was a very interesting idea for solving puzzles. It also meant the adventure never got old, since you changed locations and even timelines every few minutes.
While the story didn't have too many huge plot twists (Paperwaite fairly oozed suspiciousness from the beginning), it was nice to finally find out who Yog-Soggoth was (besides a very obvious reference to Lovecraft's Yog-Sothoth.) And the next episode looks like it will more than make up for this one in terms of twisty story.

[Uzi-Bazooka]

Just finished They Stole Max's Brain! It was seven shades of awesome.
While I agree with almost everything Wheelio said (Rhinoplasty doesn't have to be the answer to everything), I differ in one major point, though: I DISliked the Noir half, but really liked the Sammun-Mak world half. Y'see, normally I don't hold with all the complaints about "they're changing too much", "not keeping with the true style of Sam & Max", blah blah blah. Since the "true style" of Sam & Max is sheer randomness, who cares as long as it's funny?
But the whole Noir thing was WAAAAAY too serious for a Sam & Max episode. Hardly any jokes at all, and it's practically just random guessing about what interruption is the best for the situation. Sammun-Mak World, on the other hand, was HILARIOUS! It was also kind of a reverse Bright Side of the Moon-instead of it being a super-nice world where only Sam is still sane, it's a super-nice (well...nice to Sammun-Mak) world where only Max is still sane (well...sane-ish.) And since I always take the time to look at/click on/view EVERY-FREAKING THING, I didn't feel like it went by too fast.

In short, this one definitely beats The Tomb of Sammun-Mak for me too. Sorry Wheelie, and 99% of the Telltale Forum folk!

(Oh, and don't tell me if I'm right, but I'm about 200% sure that Dr. Norrington is just The Narrator. Who is also the main villain, as I speculated a long thyme ago.)

[Kinda Long Hair]

I just saw something on TV about a DeSoto. It was legit

[Uzi-Bazooka]

"Legit"? Really?

(PSSSSSSSSST: White boy from the suburbs. Don't tell him!)

[The Wheelchair]

See, now I thought the noir part was hilarious. Granted, it was mostly because of the tourist ('bout time they gave the "I wonder what happens.." guy a role) and Max's conversations with Skun-ka'pe and Papierwaite at the observatory.

Speaking of the tourist:
"At least I think it was a weltraumliebwachatzaubreikreig."

[Uzi-Bazooka]

('bout time they gave the "I wonder what happens.." guy a role)

Oh, THAT'S who what was! I knew the voice sounded familiar, but I didn't recognize Majus. I love that guy! Did you know he made a video for The Devil's Playhouse, too?

And I didn't count Max's Brain's conversations as part of the Noir part. That, along with Sammun-Mak's little idiosyncrasies ("We had headdresses adorned with vanishing points!"), was, I must admit, hilarious. However, the only part I think of as the "Noir part" is the part where Sam is interrogating punks on the streets. The part in between that and Sammun-Mak World I count as slightly separate-an interlude, if you will.

[The Wheelchair]

('bout time they gave the "I wonder what happens.." guy a role)

Oh, THAT'S who what was! I knew the voice sounded familiar, but I didn't recognize Majus. I love that guy! Did you know he made a video for The Devil's Playhouse, too?

Majus is hilarious. His Devil's Playhouse video was great, but it's kinda sad that he didn't make any for the other episodes of it.
Personally, my favorite work of his is his part as Gustav in SilverWolfPet's hilarious Monkey Island fan-series, Ask a Monkeyologist. Though that may just be because he one time answered my question.

[Uzi-Bazooka]

I didn't see that series of videos. Link please?

I like his version of "The Secret of Monkey Island". It was basically the whole story in silly, super-condensed version. Prolly his longest video.

[The Wheelchair]

I didn't see that series of videos. Link please?

They're kinda scattered throughout SilverWolfPet's Youtube channel, so I'll just link to that. They're cheesy sometimes, but there's a lot of real hilarity mixed in. Especially Kauff's call to the hospital next door a few episodes in.

I like his version of "The Secret of Monkey Island". It was basically the whole story in silly, super-condensed version. Prolly his longest video.

Link please?

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